Not long ago, before Fox News Channel and MSNBC wore partisanship on their sleeves, editorial commentary staking out positions on issues of the day regularly aired during local television newscasts around the country.

The Federal Communications Commission deemed editorials "in the public interest" and, since stations used public airwaves, they were required to devote airtime to discuss controversial issues of public importance and offer opposing viewpoints. But in 1987, the FCC's Fairness Doctrine was revoked, ending broadcasters' editorial obligations. | Jan. 30, 2014»Read Full Article(3)

Below is a photo an Aug. 9, 1966, WITI-TV (Channel 6) editorial condemning the Beatles, written and read over the air by general manager Roger LeGrand. In my story in Friday's Journal Sentinel, I talk to his Beatle's fan son Mark LeGrand for a reaction.

Consider the editorial as part of my, what is sure to be excessive, coverage of the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," Feb. 9, 1964. | Jan. 30, 2014»Read Full Blog Post

Ramona offered some squeals of approval during her mom's stirring performance of "Now You Know," a newer song that will appear on a forthcoming solo acoustic album, out in August. The album will also include new takes of songs from her 2010 album "Hadestown," which featured multiple contributions from Justin Vernon. | Jan. 30, 2014»Read Full Article

So, how are your Oscar ballots looking? Still playing catch-up with this year's nominees?

If so, you're in luck: Most of this year's contenders are available, either still in theaters or available digitally. Sometimes you can see a bunch of them in a bunch: Marcus Theatres and AMC Theatres, for example, are both showing all nine best picture nominees in nightlong programs set for Feb. 22 and March 1. See their respective websites — marcustheatres.com and amctheatres.com — for details. | Jan. 30, 2014»Read Full Article

Brewers Hall of Fame radio voice Bob Uecker said on Newsradio WTMJ 620 Thursday morning that he will be cutting back on some of his road broadcasts during the 2014 season.

Uecker, who said on Sunday at the "Brewers On Deck" fan event that he turned 80 that day, not 79 as listed (he said his listed birth year of 1935 was wrong), has been doing radio broadcasts for the Brewers since 1971. He had some medical setbacks in recent years, including heart surgery, but never suggested he would cut back his schedule until now. | Jan. 30, 2014»Read Full Blog Post(101)

After a frigid January, the Milwaukee music scene is starting to warm up with a diverse range of local acts — from Celtic rockers to hard-hitting metalheads — offering up new CDs. Here's a review of four albums, two of which were just dropped, and two of which will be coming out in February.

Tommy Rivera-Vega plays Usnavi in the Skylight Music Theatre's production of "In the Heights."

The Tony and Grammy award-winning musical "In the Heights" may be set on a street in New York's Washington Heights, but for Latinos in the Milwaukee cast of the Skylight Music Theatre's show, the story hits close to home.

Taking place over the course of three days, "Heights" explores the lives and dilemmas of those who live in the largely Dominican barrio. At the corner bodega they play the lottery, buy cups of café con leche, and try to find their place in a new world of promise and possibilities. | Jan. 30, 2014»Read Full Article

"The Great Beauty" is in the eye of the beholder. The intelligently observed and staggeringly beautiful Italian foreign-language Oscar nominee is about life, death and the search for the things that give meaning to both.

The impeccably dressed and philosophically bittersweet central character — a journalist whose only novel, 40 years earlier, earned him an acclaim he has dined out on ever since — is watching his life pass by, in a series of observations with the tenuous continuity of the cosmic allegories of Terrence Malick, made more substantial. | Jan. 30, 2014»Read Full Article(2)

Advance registration is closed, but you can still show up at the Grain Exchange at 5:30 tonight for the City of Milwaukee's annual birthday party — "6 Degrees of Milwaukee: Connected for 168 Years." The "6 degrees" theme is not a reference to the current temperature, but rather to the interconnectedness of the people of the city.